FiDi set to oust Flatiron as tech tenants’ fave locale

From left: 1 World Trade Center, rendering of the Fulton Street Transit Center and 195 Broadway
From left: 1 World Trade Center, rendering of the Fulton Street Transit Center and 195 Broadway

As tech firms and startups drive New York City commercial office demand in 2014, the Financial District is poised to overtake the Flatiron as the hottest spot for firms to set up shop, while many will also trickle over the East River into Brooklyn.

The World Trade Center site, buoyed by a new transit hub at the Fulton Transit Center and home to several multi-million-square-foot office towers, will draw the eyes of companies looking to relocate from pricier commercial hubs in Midtown and Midtown South, experts told DNAinfo. Custom computing firms, which grew by 5.6 percent in the city from June 2012 to June 2013, will flood the area along with consulting, advertising and PR firms, whose ranks swelled by 7 percent last year, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data cited by DNAinfo.

Growing tech and creative companies will also cast their eyes across the river to Dumbo, where a number are already firmly rooted, as well as Gowanus, Williamsburg, Bushwick and Crown Heights, Dave Maundrell, president of aptsandlofts.com, told DNAinfo.

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“There’s more office space planned for Brooklyn than you could imagine,” he told DNAinfo, noting that office rents in Williamsburg currently go for around $50 per square foot.” aptsandlofts.com is marketing, for instance, a 400,000-square-foot spec office building planned for 19 Kent Avenue that will be the borough’s first such property constructed since before World War II.

Creative offices will also spawn building demands such as roof terraces, bike storage, gallery spaces and juice bars, insiders told DNAinfo.

“Cold-pressed juice is looking hot right now, and I think it’s going to continue because a lot of people are looking for healthier options and it [is food that] can be done quick,” Joseph Robinson of Bond New York told DNAinfo. “The days of all the burgers and pizzas are getting pushed aside.” [DNAinfo]Julie Strickland